Cylindropuntia ramosissima

Diamond cholla, pencil cactus, Pencil Cactus

Family: Cactaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Diamond cholla is a California native shrub found in the low desert regions, including the Colorado Desert, in creosote-bush and saltbush scrub habitats at elevations below 1,300 meters. Flowering from April to August, this plant produces striking orange-pink to red-brown flowers with pale green filaments. Growing with multiple decumbent to erect trunks up to 1.5 meters tall, it forms spreading branches with distinctive terminal segments 4 to 8 millimeters in diameter. Its stems are characterized by prominent tubercles and typically bear a single spine that ranges from pink-gray to dark brown, with a pale white to yellow sheath. The plant produces dense, bur-like fruits with tubercles that blend seamlessly into the stem structure.

Habitat: Creosote-bush/white bur-sage, saltbush, other desert scrub

Bloom period: Apr-Aug

Elevation: < 1300 m

Bioregions: D

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Riverside, Imperial, San Diego

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.